Newbie here

I just found this site tonight. I'm hoping you all will be able to help me.

My 11yo son (will be 12 in 2 weeks) was just diagnosed with ADD. He is currently on Concerta (56mg) and seems to be doing well. His pediatrician said there may also be some ODD. He has been through a total psycho-ed evaluation and we should be getting the report on that early next week. After reading the symptoms of ODD, I'm pretty convinced that is what he has in addition to ADD. Is there a book or something I can read to help me help my son? We are seeing a family counselor, but insurance isn't paying for anything and it's getting pretty expensive.

The private school that my son goes to has basically kicked him out until they get the results of his evaluation. Would the school still be able to educate my son if he is diagnosed with ODD or would he be better off in a public school?

As a newbie, could you please explain what some of the abbreviations are? difficult child???

Honestly, I think his private education is likely great academically, but a good public school is too. In addition, public schools have a lot more programs, I think, for kids with needs than private schools who just don't have the funding.

I recommend anything by Dr. Greene... I've already found so much of his work helpful and I'm fairly new too. Read the FAQ's on the board, it helps with the abbreviations. difficult child is your Gift from God, AKA your "problem child"

I recommend "The Explosive Child" by Ross Greene, the author suggested above.

The benefit I see in public school vs. private school is that they have to educate your child, ODD, ADD or otherwise. So kicking him out without another option that they come up with, doesn't fly. This is a benefit when dealing with our difficult children and their behavior issues.

When you say he had a complete evaluation, who did the evaluation for him?

Does your insurance cover neuropsychologists? I would recommend seeing one for an evaluation. Their testing is much more extensive than most psychiatrists.

Welcome to the board. More will be along shortly to offer some advice.

Hello & welcome aboard. What are the behaviors your son is exhibiting that got him kicked out of school? The others are correct that your son has protections under IDEA when attending a public school, private schools are not under the same mandate.
As for the family counselling, many of us have found that talk therapy hasn't helped a great deal until a correct (or at least effective diagnosis) is applied.

My difficult child just had his evaluation completed last week Wed. (9/26). It was done by a psychiatrist who was formerly the lead psychiatric for our county's public school system. He came highly recommended by our family counselor and a couple of the teachers at the private school. This psychiatric put my son through 4 hours of testing plus several "leveled" questionnaires that I, the teachers and my son all filled out. From what the doctor has told me, his report should be in the 12-17 page range. So I'm not real worried about the evaluation - I think it's pretty in depth and complete.

The only problem with the public schools in my area is that they ! My son is actually very smart. He's flown through his studies because everything was so easy for him. I'm waiting on the evaluation results to tell me what his IQ is. He's been in the gifted program through out elementary school (public school) but there isn't a gifted program in the middle school - thus the jump to private school where he is being challenged even if I'm having to home study him!

Thank you for the suggestion on the book. I'm going to run to Borders this weekend and pick it up.

Actually he has been very disrespectful to the teachers - telling the middle school director to "give me a break" when my difficult child was instructed to get back on the same van for the trip back to campus. He's also gotten very upset to the point of pushing his work at a teacher and saying "see I've done it". The breaking point was when (I know this is going to sound petty) he was told to take 4 pens to class and he took 8. Like I said I know it sounds petty, but that type of behavior had been going on for 7 days (the first 7 days of school). He's always been that way in school - including temper tantrums (nothing like a 2yo can throw), crying for no reason - but this just escalated this school year. When putting all those things together, you can kind of see how I might make the assumption that he's a little ODD. The Concerta is helping a little as he doesn't exhibit those types of behaviors here at home - he did a couple of times, but he caught himself and held back.